Numbers 35:5

_AND THE CITIES SHALL THEY HAVE TO DWELL IN; AND THE SUBURBS OF THEM SHALL BE FOR THEIR CATTLE, AND FOR THEIR GOODS, AND FOR ALL THEIR BEASTS._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-8 The cities of the priests and Levites were not only to accommodate them, but to place them, as religious teachers, in several parts of the land. For though the typical service of the tabernacle or temple was only in one place, the preaching of the word of God, and prayer and praise, were not thus confined. These cities were to be given out of each tribe. Each thus made a grateful acknowledgement to God. Each tribe had the benefit of the Levites dwelling amongst them, to teach them the knowledge of the Lord; thus no parts of the country were left to sit in darkness. The gospel provides that he who is taught in the word, should communicate to him that teaches, in all good things, Galatians 6:6. We are to free God's ministers from distracting cares, and to leave them at leisure for the duties of their station; so that they may be wholly employed therein, and avail themselves of every o...

Verse Numbers 35:5. _AND YE SHALL MEASURE FROM WITHOUT THE CITY - TWO_ _THOUSAND CUBITS, C._] Commentators have been much puzzled with the accounts in these two verses. In Numbers 35:4 the measure is said to be 1,000 cubits from the wall in Numbers 35:5 the measure is said to be 2,000 from without the city. It is likely these two measures mean the same thing; at least so it was understood by the Septuagint and Coptic, who have δισχιλιους πηχεις, 2,000 cubits, in the _fourth_, as well as in the _fifth_ verse; but this reading of the Septuagint and Coptic is not acknowledged by any other of the ancient vers

FROM WITHOUT THE CITY - Omit “from.” The demarcation here intended would run parallel to the wall of the city, outside which it was made. To guard against any restrictions of area, due to such causes as the irregular forms of the cities or the physical obstacles of the ground, it was ordained that the suburb should, alike on north, south, east, and west, present, at a distance of one thousand cubits (or, nearly one-third of a mile) from the wall, a front not less than two thousand cubits in length; and, by joining the extremities of these measured fronts according to the nature of the ground, a sufficient space for the Levites would be secured....

AND YE SHALL MEASURE FROM WITHOUT THE CITY ON THE EAST SIDE TWO THOUSAND CUBITS,.... Before only 1000 cubits were ordered to be measured, and now 2000, even 2000 more, which were to be added to the other, and to begin where they ended. The first 1000 were for their cattle and goods, these 2000 for their gardens, orchards, fields, and vineyards; and so the Jewish writers understand it. Jarchi observes, that 1000 cubits are ordered, and after that 2000; and asks, how is this? or how is it to be reconciled? to which he answers, 2000 are put to them round about, and of them the 1000 innermost are for suburbs, and the outermost (i.e. the 2000) are for fields and vineyards; and with this agrees the Misnah a, from whence he seems to have taken it; and the same was to be on every other side of the city, south, west, and north, as follows: and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the w...

11. THE CITIES OF REFUGE CHAPTER 35 _ 1. The provision of the Levites: Forty-eight cities (Numbers 35:1)_ 2. The cities of refuge (Numbers 35:9) The cities of the Levites were scattered through the land. Genesis 49:7 is therefore fulfilled. The provision of cities for refuge is full of interest. The careful study of the purpose of these cities is recommended. Note especially that they were provided to give shelter for those who had killed a person unawares. The avenger of blood (Hebrew: _goel, which means to redeem) pursued the person and the city of refuge gave shelter. The death of the high priest resulted in liberty for all who were in the cities of refuge. It was the signal that they could

APPOINTMENT OF LEVITICAL CITIES AND CITIES OF REFUGE. This law must be supplementary to, and later than, the law in Numbers 18:8, which does not contemplate the assignment to the Levites of cities in addition to the tithes, and indeed, definitely denies to them any territorial possessions (Numbers 18:20; _cf._ Deuteronomy 18:1). The cities here bestowed on the Levites are forty-eight in number, and are enumerated in Joshua 21; but the facts (_a)_ that some did not come fully under Israelitish ownership until after Joshua's death (_e.g._ Gezer, see p. 28, Judges 1:29 *,...

TO THEM.. special various reading called _Sevir_ (App-34) reads "to you", with which agree some codices, Samaritan Pentateuch, The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel Septuagint, Syriac, and one early printed edition....

_The Levitical cities_ The Levites are to receive 48 cities with their surrounding land (E.VV. -suburbs"), six of which are to be -cities of refuge." The cities are to be contributed by each tribe in numbers proportionate to its size. Each plot of land is to be a square of 2,000 cubits (_c._1,000 yards). The carrying out of this law is related in fuller detail in Joshua 21, where the allotment is as follows: the _Kohathite Levites_were given 10 towns in Ephraim, Dan and western Manasseh, the _Gershonites_13 in Issachar, Asher, Naphtali and eastern Manasseh, the _Merarites_12 in Reuben, Gad and Zebulun, while the _priests_had 10 in Judah, Simeon and Benjamin. Two considerations, however, shew that this is a purely ideal arrangement, which could never have been actually brought about: 1st, In a hilly country like Palestine, cut with deep ravines, it would be impossib

THE SUBURBS OF THE CITIES SHALL REACH, &C.— In the version of the LXX, _instead of a thousand cubits round about,_ it is _two thousand cubits,_ which, from the next verse, appears evidently to have been the true and original reading; a reading which entirely removes all those difficulties wherewith the passage otherwise is loaded, and which commentators have so laboriously endeavoured to remove. The plain meaning seems to be, that the suburbs of these cities, whether from the wall, or from the centre of the city, as Le Clerc would render it, were to be two thousand cubits in extent on every side, the city standing in the midst. The reader, desirous to enter into the critical disquisitions of this subject, will find sufficient matter in almost every commentator, particularly in Calmet, Houbigant, Scheuchzer, and Le Clerc. If, however, this reading of the LXX should not be approved, we may...